2 Teenagers Missing in Waters Off Beach in Queens in Suspected Drownings

Authorities on Saturday afternoon suspended their search for two teenagers who were reported missing in the waters off Jacob Riis Park in Queens, a shoreline notorious for rip currents that prove deadly year after year.

The authorities received reports of a possible drowning around 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The officers responding to the scene were told that two teenage boys, ages 16 and 17, had been seen struggling in the water before they disappeared from view, according to the New York Police Department.

Emergency responders with the police, the New York Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard, including rescue swimmers and divers, searched the churning waters, but found no one, according to the police. Crews searched more than 600 square miles between the shores of New Jersey and Long Island, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

Kaz Daughtry, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner of operations, told news crews at the beach that witnesses said the teenagers had been overtaken by a large wave that they tried to avoid by jumping, but it appeared to suck them under.

“There is a strong rip current at Rockaway that’s most likely what caused the incident,” said Michelle Krupa, an operations controller for the Coast Guard.

Divers suspended their search on Friday night because of “extremely, extremely rough” currents, Mr. Daughtry said. A Coast Guard boat continued the search overnight. Efforts by sea and air resumed for much of the day Saturday, but the Coast Guard said around 4 p.m. that it had decided to suspend the search.

“The decision to suspend a search is always difficult and weighs heavily on all involved,” Jonathan Andrechik, the commander of the Coast Guard in New York, said in a statement.

The National Weather Service forecast a moderate risk of rip currents, narrow and fast-moving channels of water that flow from beaches into the sea, off the beaches at Jacob Riis Park on Friday, with waves of three to four feet. The risk was expected to increase over the weekend, to a high risk by Sunday, when waves may reach six feet.

New York is in the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures in the high 90s, sending some to the beaches to cool off. Jacob Riis was open to the public as normal on Saturday.

Rip currents are relatively common in the Rockaways, on the southern edge of Queens, and have repeatedly claimed the lives of beachgoers, especially young ones. Last July, a 19-year-old swimmer drowned off Jacob Riis Park after getting caught in a rip current. The year before that, two swimmers, 20 and 16, died on the same day off a neighboring beach in the Rockaways, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which tracks deaths linked to rip currents.

In 2019, at least seven people died swimming off the peninsula’s beaches. All were 25 or younger.

Though rip currents can occur anywhere, topography and the shape of the ocean floor make them more common on certain beaches, according to NOAA. Jetties, piers and other infrastructure that extend from beaches into the water can also make rip currents more likely, said Dominic Ramunni, a meteorologist in the Weather Service’s New York office.

“Unfortunately, it seems like that area throughout the Rockaways, it’s one of those spots,” Mr. Ramunni said.

The emergency calls on Friday evening were made about half an hour after the lifeguards’ shifts ended at 6 p.m. Many of the recent drownings in the area have occurred when lifeguards are not on duty. Swimming is prohibited in those cases, but the rule can be hard to enforce.

New York faces an ongoing lifeguard shortage. Earlier in the week, only 310 lifeguards were on duty at the city’s beaches, but city officials say 600 are needed for the beaches to operate at full capacity, according to Gothamist.

Isabella Kwai contributed reporting.